I am not sure where to post this inquiry, so I will start here and maybe someone can lead me in the right direction. I teach in a rural distict. I only teach students with emotional disabilities and have grades 1-12. My problem is that with all of these grade levels I must teach many different subjects at many different levels. My students are all on grade level or a above. My students behaviors or emotions keep them from participating in the reg. classes. I have tried the reg. classes and it does not work for most of my students. In my class the students are pretty much well behaved and are very hard workers. My problem is that it is burning me out trying to teach all of the subjects I am responsible for teaching. I group kids together for some subjects but once they reach high school they are responsible for so many credits in different areas. I also feel responsible for making sure my students are able to pass state mandated testing so I even stress myself out more with trying to keep up with each grade level objectives. I was a regular ed. teacher first and have this goal oriented mind set about my students passing these test. If anyone has been in this type of setting or if anyone has any advice for me please respond. I am seriously thinking about teaching reg. ed again so that I can teach 1 subject. Besides all of these subjects I must teach I love my students and my job but all of this preparation is taking time from my family. For those of you that would suggest team teaching there is no way I can do it because I do not have enough kids in one grade level. I have almost 1 child in each grade level and I can not leave my classroom to go anywhere. Thanks again.
Cynthia
Re: Too many subjects to teach
Oh Cynthia can I relate!!!! I have also had several years where I had so many kids, so many levels, and some years I also had no aide (no money and no qualified aides). It is hard without a doubt, but let me share what I did. I had to look through the many different grade levels and subject books and came up with units of study that overlapped. Sometimes, they overlapped in subject, sometimes not, when that happened, I decided what unit to teach that would cover skills and general info. needed at different grades. I then kept all of my lessons and materials to teach in 2 years. The next year, I had to do the same and make new units again so that the kids who remained with me did not get the same lessons again. It truly was a challenge, and I am single, no children, so I cannot imagine what you go through. It can also be very exciting depending on what you decide you want to teach. Have you checked with your case manager (Learning Consultant) to see if he or she has ideas? YOu cannot be expected to hit every subject completely with such a wide range of ages (are you in legal age limit for your state - aide?) When you say 1-12, do you mean self contained or Resource Center type? If it is self contained, you need help! Your district is doing a disservice to these kids having more that 4 or 5 year age span, especially because they are on grade level or close to it. Now, how are you set up for computers? Could you get some of the kids to do research on the web about different subjects? Sometimes, I have heard of teachers of ED kids who ask them what they want to learn (most ED classses are like yours - many ages and abilities) and then focus on their ideas. The kids are motivated and you would be teaching skills (such as research, guess and test, exploring for answers, etc.) and letting them kind of do the footwork. You would be like a manager keeping track of their indepepndant studies. If you go this way, I would suggest you set up a general rubric for each grade level and some form of time line. Are there other classes in other schools you can go observe for ideas?
You sound sooooo dedicated and it sounds like you have reached these kids. I applaud you!!! This time of year is also generally the worst as everytthing comes to a head and we are all extra tired. Don’t make any decisions yet until after you have rested, ok! This is big sis talking! We all need support sometimes, and we are all here for you!
Good luck, take care of YOU! cat
Re: Too many subjects to teach
Cynthia:
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If all of your students are on grade level or above, I’m really wondering if some of them actually qualify for Special Ed. at all under Seriously Emotionally Disturbed. I was under the impression that their emotional disturbance had to interfere with their ability to learn. If they’re on grade level, it sounds llike they’re learning just fine! Another question I would ask is “Are they SED at home? At PE? Art? Lunch?. If they’re not—then they should not be qualifying for Special Ed. Have FBAs and BIPs been done in the classrooms before they were put into your class? From your description, it really doesn’t appear that important procedures were followed.
My other recommendation would be to see how much mainstreaming can be done in the content area subjects, especially at the middle and high school levels. There is absolutely no reason—unless your students are violent and/or are a safety hazard to themselves and others that they shouldn’t be spending a good chunk of time with nondisabled students.
Marilyn
Re: Too many subjects to teach
I would certainly be interested in knowing where you are - what state? It seems first of all horrible that you would have all of these children in one class at one time? Am I understanding you correctly, or do you have all the elementary one part of the day, middle school, then HS one part of the day - or are they all in one classroom together? First of all the classroom teachers in the general ed. setting should be able to help you with lesson plans and curriculum, then you would just need to modify these - this would free up a lot of your time. I cannot believe you haven’t got an aide!!!! Your school district is certainly doing these children and you no favors or helping you educate these children. Where are you? I will pray for you - really, it seems that you are in a situation that I see no cure for unless you can get help from the reg. ed. teachers. Melanie
Re: Too many subjects to teach
I think that having many kids from Gr. K-12 in one resource room happens a lot throughout the states, especially in smaller school districts where there is only 1 resource room. I know because I worked in one. Calling that services to our children is so unfair. That is one of the reasons I got out of Sp Ed and am now in a regular classroom. These kids need individual or small group time at the least and there is just so much of the teacher to go around. Things need to change at the federal level and have them start supplying money to implement the programs they mandate. (And do a good job of it!)
I don’t have solutions but you have my intense and heartfelt sympathy. What a situation:( And people wonder why good teachers leave this profession.
When I taught a self contained program like yours at middle and high school levels, I had teaching assistants (one but an individual aide also) that I taught how to teach - supervising lessons and planning- to free up some time in my day. I also team taught with some of the regular ed teachers- my kids and I would go to their class. The teacher and I had planned beforehand what the activities would be. With some groups we were together everyday for the semster and with others we joined them intermittently. Depended on the group. That worked reasonably well but it was still exhausting. Are either of these an option?
You might also consider consolidating your time in the high school classes- running one high school English class for muliple grades for example, with different workload expectations for the different grade levels. Kind of the one room school house model.
Good luck…
Robin